


"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

by dianasmaximoff



Series: Fallout: The College Years [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Drug Use, Multi, Rating May Change, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:42:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29747235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dianasmaximoff/pseuds/dianasmaximoff
Summary: Nora Carter begins her time at the Commonwealth Institute of Technology engaged to her high school sweetheart, newly enlisted soldier Nate Brantley. But what will become of their relationship when Nora meets the deeply enchanting Erik Danse at a party?The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is intended to chronicle Nora and Danse's freshman year at C.I.T. as both wrestles with feelings and expectations.
Relationships: Deacon/John Hancock (Fallout), Desdemona/Glory (Fallout), Paladin Danse/Nora (Fallout)
Series: Fallout: The College Years [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2186367
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

**Author's Note:**

> This is chapter one of a multi-chapter fic documenting Nora and Danse's freshman year. I haven't written anything in a long-time, so I'm excited to return to fiction writing with a piece centered around Danse and Nora's developing relationship. He's my fave Fallout 4 companion. 
> 
> I've tried to keep the Fallout 4 lore similar despite this being a College AU. For note, Shaun is Nora's grandfather in this piece. He works in biotechnology and oversees C.I.T. I also tried to translate what each character would major in and what roles characters play in the story as similar as I could to their roles and personalities within Fallout 4.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! But feel free to leave any critiques in the comments.

The Commonwealth Institute of Technology: one of the elite higher education institutions in the United States. The awe-inspiring school Nora Carter had dreamed of attending since she was a little girl and her father would bring her to visit her grandfather Shaun, a professor in the Biological Sciences department, at his office. 

Her grandfather had received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at C.I.T. and had, a few years ago, taken over the position of Chancellor at the university; her father had received his Bachelors of Science in Mathematics, and she -- though the odd-ball liberal arts student -- had chosen the university to be the place she studied Political Science and Pre-Law. Now, the time was here for Nora to continue the Carter family’s legacy within the halls of the great university.

She picked her keys up from the front desk at Eastern Residence Hall and descended the steps to her room. 

The door swung open to reveal her roommate had already arrived and was unpacking a rather large stack of notebooks onto a wooden desk. 

“Oh!”

Her roommate spun around, startled. One of the notebooks slipped from her grasp and clattered to the floor. 

Nora dropped her bag beside her bed and hurried over to pick the notebook up off the floor. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you. I’m Nora Carter; I’m a freshman in the Political Science department. You must be Piper?”

Her roommate took the notebook from Nora’s hands, smiling warmly. 

“That’s right. Piper Wright, at your service. I’m a junior in the Journalism department. Welcome to C.I.T.’s campus. I hope you enjoy your time here.” 

“Thanks, I’m excited to be here.”

“Wait, you said your last name is Carter, right? No relation to Chancellor Carter, the man who oversees this whole university?” 

“He’s my grandfather,” Nora replied. 

“Oh boy,” Piper said with a devilish smile overtaking her face, “this is going to be quite the year. I’m the new Editor-in-Chief of Publick Occurrences, the student-run newspaper on campus. Your grandfather is a hot topic, especially since he announced last fall that the university would be partnering with the U.S. military to develop new biotechnology. I hope you don’t take any negative takes about him personally, because I can promise you know that there will be no holds barred.” 

Nora didn’t even have time to respond, because at that exact moment a tiny girl with a pixie-cut popped her head around the door. 

“Hello, Piper. It is so nice to see you again after the summer apart. Please tell me you had a good holiday with young Natasha.” 

“Curie!” 

Piper broke into a large grin, rushing to hug the woman standing in front of their door. 

“I had a lovely summer. Come in!”

Piper practically yanked Curie into the room. 

“Curie Holloway, I’d like you to meet my new roommate, Nora Carter. She’s a freshman and -- get this -- her grandfather is Shaun Carter, our Chancellor.”

Curie let out a small gasp.

“Oh that is so interesting! His work on genetic engineering was quite important to the development of advanced AI technologies. Quite promising.”

Piper rolled her eyes so far back Nora thought they would rotate completely around.

“No, Curie. That’s bad, remember? The whole military technology and weaponry being designed by researchers at this university thing? Geez, it’s like talking to a robot sometimes.” 

Nora snapped out of her brief shock at her roommates’ brash attitude. 

“I’m not sure anything’s that wrong with military technology; after all, our men and women fighting overseas need the best protection. My fiance just got deployed to the Alaskan front and I’m proud my grandfather is investing in protecting Nate and others from harm,” Nora replied curtly. 

Piper scoffed, and Nora bit her tongue to refrain from offending any further the woman she was to share a living space with for the next nine months. She got the vague impression that her whole existence in this room affronted Piper’s sensibilities. 

“Whatever,” Piper spit out, “but I doubt your grandfather’s intentions are as benevolent as you’re led to believe.” 

“We’ll see,” Nora replied icily. 

“We certainly will.”

“Why don’t we go for a walk, Piper,” Curie asked, cutting the tension that had permeated the small dormitory room. “We have plenty of time before Cait’s party tonight.” 

“That sounds like a great plan, Curie.” 

Piper grabbed her purse off of her bed, and departed, shutting the door with a ferocity. 

A dreadful feeling began to creep into Nora’s consciousness. She could sense that it was certainly going to be quite a long year. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Across campus, in the Southern Residence Hall, Erik Danse finished unpacking the last of his clothing into his drawers. His roommate and childhood best friend, Arthur Maxson, lay across his bed reading the latest issue of the Military Digest. Maxson was glad he had talked his best friend into joining the Army ROTC so that one day they could become brothers-in-arms together. 

“Alright, that’s the last of them,” Danse said. He turned to face Arthur. 

“Fantastic,” Arthur said. He closed the Military Digest and sat up. “Where should we go grab dinner? The campus diner is open, but there’s a new Italian restaurant beside the polymer laboratory that’s supposed to be quite good.” 

After a back and forth, Danse and Maxson settled on the Italian restaurant. The walk to the restaurant was silent which each man taking in the way fall had transformed the nature near the campus buildings. The trees outside the southernmost residence hall appeared crimson red like the trees had caught themselves on fire. It was lovely, Danse thought to himself, as he and Arthur walked step-in-step towards the restaurant. 

Once inside, they placed their orders and waited for the young man at the counter -- the name tag said Deacon -- to call their order number. After a few minutes, two large portions of spaghetti and meatballs were placed on the counter, which Danse retrieved for the pair. 

The dinner chat mainly consisted of discussing their class schedules and the ROTC training program Maxson, the elder of the pair, had spent the last two years being whipped into shape by Justin Ayo, the ROTC program leader, and he was thrilled that Danse, who had never quite adjusted to being orphaned as a young adult, would become a member of the ROTC. Maxson hoped it would have the same effect on Danse that it had had on him. Erik Danse was such an intelligent person, even majoring in Biomedical Engineering, Maxson wanted nothing more than to see his friend succeed in life, and knew the disciplined routine of the ROTC and -- eventually, upon graduating -- the United States Army would be invaluable to Danse’s future. 

Around halfway through their meal, a group of students came into the restaurant. Arthur seemed so excited to see them; he waved them over with an uncharacteristic smile. 

“Erik, I’m so thrilled for you to meet some of the other Army ROTC members. What a lucky coincidence. Everyone, this is Erik Danse, my friend that I was telling you all about the other day.” 

A gruff-looking young man with the buzzcut stuck his hand roughly out to Danse. “Ryan Rhys, studying Business Administration. Welcome to C.I.T. and to the ROTC program. You should be proud to be among us.” 

The woman with the messy auburn hair standing beside Rhys laughed. “Let’s not give him the big spiel already, Ryan. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Erik. I’m Victoria Ingram. I’ll be graduating in the spring with a degree in Economics, and then enlisting.”

The other man with the group spoke up, identifying himself as Charleston Kells. “Welcome to C.I.T., Erik. I can’t wait to see what you’ll accomplish in your time here.”

Athena Neriah introduced herself next, leaning down to give Danse an unexpected hug. She was quite friendly, he thought to himself, if not a little overzealous. And Athena pointed to a small woman standing at the outskirts of the group’s little huddle, her roommate: a freshman named Ashley Haylen. Haylen had merely given a small smile and a nod, but Danse got the impression that she and he would be incredible friends if he could get her to open up. 

After a few minutes of chit-chat, the group dispersed so they could pick up the takeout they had ordered. Erik and Arthur waved as the ROTC group exited the store, and Danse was excited that he already had a sense of community despite only being at university for a few hours. 

And then Rhys had paused at the door. He turned and made his way back to Maxson and Danse’s table. “By the way, dudes, there’s going to be this party hosted by that Irish exchange student girl, Cait, at her apartment tonight. You two should stop by if you get the chance. It’s going to be awesome.” He rushed out of the restaurant to follow after his buddies. 

Arthur gave him that look and Danse knew that one way or the other, the two of them were going to end up at Cait’s. There was no point in arguing with Maxson when he got an idea on his mind.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Back in her dorm room, Nora was listening to music on her holotape player while Piper and Curie prepared themselves to go out for the evening. Piper had on a black-and-white newspaper dress -- very on theme for the Journalism major -- while Curie had decided on a shimmery red dress. From the corner of her eye, Nora could see Curie side-eyeing her on occasion. After about the third or fourth pointed glance in her direction, Nora saw Curie whisper something to Piper, who frowned. The two went back and forth for a minute before Piper exasperatedly threw her hands up in resignation. Curie smiled and made a motion for Nora to remove the earphones she was using to listen to her holotape. 

“Hello, Nora. We were wondering if you would like to accompany us to our friend Cait’s party this evening. It will be a wonderful event full of dancing and new friends. Piper and I -- oh well, I at least, would be so pleased with your attendance.” 

Did Nora want to go? She didn’t know this Cait person in the slightest, but she did know that Piper would be beyond pissed if Nora accepted this hastily given pity invitation. And that was good enough for her. Besides, she thought, Curie seemed quite nice. If she wasn’t going to become close to her roommate, she could at least become close with her friends. 

“Sure, I’d love to. Just give me a few minutes to change. I’ll be ready to go soon.” 

Nora rifled through her closet and decided on a floral-print mini-dress that she thought complimented her eyes. She thought for a brief second she saw a hint of jealousy on Piper’s face with how good she looked in it, and Curie had gushed about how beautiful she thought Nora looked. Throwing on a hint of mascara, Nora left for Cait’s party with Piper and Curie leading the way for what was sure to be an eventful evening.


End file.
